First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)


The First Professional Football League, also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva liga, currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league, located at the top of the Bulgarian football league system. Contested by 14 teams, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Vtora liga.
The Bulgarian football championship was inaugurated in 1924 as the Bulgarian State Football Championship and has been played in a league format since 1948, when the A Group was established. The champions of the First League have the right to participate in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League based on the league's European coefficient. Additionally, two UEFA Europa League spots are allocated to the second team in the final standings and the winner of the European playoffs. A further fourth spot may also be granted to the fourth placed team in the final league ranking, given that the Bulgarian Cup holder has finished among the top three teams at the end of the season.
A total of 67 clubs have competed in the Bulgarian top-tier since its establishment. Since 1948, eleven different teams have been crowned champions of Bulgaria. The three most successful clubs are CSKA Sofia with 31 titles, Levski Sofia with 26 titles and Ludogorets Razgrad with 9 titles. The current champions Ludogorets Razgrad won their ninth consecutive title in their ninth First League season in 2019–20. The competition has been dominated by Sofia-based teams. The Sofia teams have won together a total number of 70 titles.

History

Foundation

The first football championship of Bulgaria started in 1924 in a knockout format. An attempt to form a league as the top division of the Bulgarian football league system was made in 1937–1940, when the National Football Division was created. There were 10 teams, each playing twice against all the others, once home and once away. The team that finished first in the table became champions.

A Republican Football Group

The first season of the A Republican Football Group started in the autumn of 1948. In that season, ten teams participated in the league: Levski, Septemvri, Lokomotiv, Slavia and Spartak from the capital city Sofia, and Botev, Slavia, Marek, FC Bdin|Benkovd in a spring-autumn cycle as in the Soviet Union. In the autumn of 1949, qualification tournaments were played to determine the teams that would play in the next 1950 season. In the next two seasons the number of teams in the league was increased to 12, and for the 1953 season there were 15 teams. In seasons 1954 and 1955 there were 14 teams in the league, and in seasons 1956 and 1957 there were 10.
In 1958, the championship was again stopped after the spring half-season, as had happened in 1948. New re-organizations were accepted and the league was again going to be played in the autumn-spring format. Despite the fact that the teams had played just 1 match, CDNA was crowned as the champion of Bulgaria.
The frequent changes in the number of teams in A Group continued in the 1960s. In the first two seasons after the reforms in 1958, the number of teams in the league was 12, in the period 1960–1962 – 14, until season 1967/68, when the teams were 16.
There were new reforms at the end of the 1960s. There were many mergers between Bulgarian clubs. The most-famous are between CSKA Red Flag and Septemvri Sofia in CSKA September Flag, the capital teams Levski and Spartak in Levski-Spartak, Lokomotiv and Slavia in Slavia, the Plovdiv teams Botev, Spartak and Academic in Trakiya. Mergers happened between other Bulgarian clubs too. These mergers between clubs and reforms in A Group were made at the winter break of the 1968/69 season.
After the winter reforms in 1968 until 2000, A Group remained with 16 teams, except in seasons 1971/72 and 1972/73, when 18 teams competed in the league.

Premier Professional Football League

The Bulgarian Football Union decided to make reforms. The Premier Professional Football League, created in the autumn of 2000, had 14 teams participating in it. At the end of the 2000/01 season, the last two teams were directly relegated to the lower division and the team that finished 12th had the chance to compete in the promotion/relegation play-off for the remaining place in the league. Levski Sofia became champions in the first season of the Premier League.
In the 2001/02 season there was experimentation with the regulations. The championship was divided into two phases. In the first phase the teams played a regular season, each team playing twice against all the others, once home and once away. The second phase was a play-off phase.
In the following season, 2002/03, the championship returned to the regulations of 2000/01 – 14 teams playing in a home and away format. For the first time in 6 years, CSKA Sofia became champions.

A Group

The Bulgarian A Professional Football Group was created in 2003. The group was formed by 16 teams, each playing twice against all the others, once home and once away. In the first season of the newly created A Group, the 2003–04 season, for the first time in history, Lokomotiv Plovdiv became champions, finishing with 75 points. In 2004–05, CSKA Sofia won A Group for the 30th time.
For the next two seasons, Levski Sofia were champions under manager Stanimir Stoilov. From 2005–06 the league's name has been A Football Group. In 2007–08, CSKA became champions of A Group for a record-breaking 31st time without a loss out of 30 matches. But in the summer, UEFA didn't give a license for the club to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds and Levski Sofia entered to play in the tournament instead of CSKA. In the following season Levski Sofia won their last A Group title, finishing one point ahead of CSKA. Later on, two years in a row Litex Lovech won another two titles like in 1997–98 and 1998–99. In 2011–12, after winning promotion from B Group, Ludogorets Razgrad became the second team after Litex to win the A Group in their first season.
The Bulgarian Football Union made some changes in the format of A Group prior to season 2014–15 with the reduction of the number of the teams participating in the top league from 16 to 12.

First Professional Football League

On June 7, 2016 the league's name was changed to First Professional Football League, following approval of new licensing criteria for the clubs.

Competition format

Starting from the 2016-17 season, a new league format was approved by the Bulgarian Football Union, in an attempt to improve each participating club's competitiveness, match attendance and performance in the league. It involves 14 teams playing in two phases, a regular season and playoffs. The first phase includes each club competing against every other team twice in a double round-robin system, on a home-away basis at a total of 26 games per team and played in 26 fixtures. Seven matches are played in every fixture at a total of 182 games played during the first phase. In the second phase, the top six teams form a European qualifying table, while the bottom eight teams participate in a relegation group. The winner of the top group is declared as Champions of Bulgaria and is awarded with the title.

International qualification

The six top teams compete against each other on a home-away basis. Three matches are played in every fixture of the top six, with the results and points after the regular season also included. At the end of the stage, every team will have played a total of 36 games. The winner of the group is declared as Champions of Bulgaria and automatically secures participation in the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. The team that ranks second is awarded with a place in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds. The third team in the final standings would participate in a play-off match against a representative team from the bottom eight. Depending on the winner of the Bulgarian Cup final, a possible fourth team from the first six may compete in a play-off match for an UEFA Europa League spot instead of the third ranked team.
Note: If the Bulgarian Cup winner has secured its qualification for the European tournaments for the next season through results from Parva Liga, then the place in the UEFA Europa League play-off is awarded to the fourth ranked team in the final standings.

Relegation

The teams in the bottom eight are split in two sub-groups of four teams, Group A and Group B, depending on their final position after the regular season standings. The teams that enter Group A are the 7th, 10th, 11th and the 14th, and the teams that participate in Group B are the 8th, 9th, 12th and the 13th. Every participant plays twice against the other three teams in their group on a home-away basis. The teams from the bottom eight also compete with the results from the regular season. After the group stages, every team will have played a total number of 32 games. Depending on their final position in Group A and Group B, two sections will be formed, one for a play-off spot in next season's European competitions and one to avoid relegation. The first two teams from each group continue in the semi-finals, and the last two teams of each group continue to the semi-finals for a relegation match. After this phase, one team is directly relegated to the Second League and the remaining two teams will compete in two relegation matches against the second and the third ranked clubs from the Second League.

Tiebreakers

In case of a tie on points between two or more clubs, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Number of wins;
  2. Goal difference;
  3. Goals pro;
  4. Goals away;
  5. Fewest red cards;
  6. Fewest yellow cards;
  7. Draw

    Current clubs

The following clubs are competing in the Prva profesionalna Liga during the 2019–20 season.
TeamLocationStadiumCapacity
ArdaKardzhaliArena Arda15,000
BeroeStara ZagoraBeroe 12,128
BotevPlovdivBotev 1912 Football Complex 3,500
BotevVratsaHristo Botev 25,000
Cherno MoreVarnaTicha 8,250
CSKASofiaBalgarska Armiya 18,495
DunavRuseGradski 12,400
EtarVeliko TarnovoIvaylo 15,000
LevskiSofiaVivacom Arena - Georgi Asparuhov 25,000
LokomotivPlovdivLokomotiv 13,000
LudogoretsRazgradLudogorets Arena 10,422
SlaviаSofiaSlavia 25,556
Tsarsko SeloSofiaVasil Levski National Stadium43,230
VitoshaBistritsaBistritsa Stadium 2,000

List of champions

Performance by club

ClubTitlesRunners-upWinning Years
CSKA Sofia
31
26
1948, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1965–66, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1991–92, 1996–97, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2007–08
Levski Sofia
26
32
1933, 1937, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1948–49, 1950, 1953, 1964–65, 1968, 1969–70, 1973–74, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09
Ludogorets Razgrad
9
2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20
Slavia Sofia
7
10
1928, 1930, 1936, 1938–39, 1941, 1943, 1995–96
Lokomotiv Sofia
4
6
1939–40, 1945, 1963–64, 1977–78
Cherno More Varna
4
6
1925, 1926, 1934, 1937–38
Litex Lovech
4
1
1997–98, 1998–99, 2009–10, 2010–11
Botev Plovdiv
2
2
1929, 1966–67
Spartak Varna
1
2
1932
Spartak Plovdiv
1
1
1962–63
Lokomotiv Plovdiv
1
1
2003–04
Beroe Stara Zagora
1
1
1985–86
Etar Veliko Tarnovo
1
1990–91
Sportklub Sofia
1
1935
Athletic Slava 1923
1
1931

Notes:
#ClubCityBest
classification
Notes
1LevskiSofia752137125048939841131928+21853503Never relegated.
2CSKASofia702020123245833041431742+24013385
3SlaviaSofia70202887748366830272379+6482568Never relegated. Expelled with political decision for 1 season.
4LokomotivSofia64183577046060526442215+4292279
5BotevPlovdiv64186371943471026932572+1212102
6LokomotivPlovdiv58173267139766423392372-332019
7Cherno MoreVarna55161357340963119202050-1301786
8BeroeStara Zagora52155953636665718962229-3331636
9LitexLovech206083541231311113552+5611149
10SpartakVarna43120237827055413851829-4441144
11MinyorPernik38105533024847711751594-4191000
12SpartakPleven3599431424543511501511-361886
13BotevVratsa2988230119238911041311-207820
14ChernomoretsBurgas2986627718840110571410-353775Dissolved in 2006.
15PirinBlagoevgrad267882441963488441072-228751
16DunavRuse288072541983558621215-353737
17MarekDupnitsa298382511774109201374-454737
18EtarVeliko Tarnovo247262641613019511043-92731Dissolved in 2003.
19Sliven 2000Sliven257502461643409061109-203675
20LudogoretsRazgrad82701676439540187+353609Finished 1st each of their seasons in First League.
21NeftochimicBurgas1443017183176600567+33575
22AkademikSofia18505163136206589676-87467
23SpartakPlovdiv17441158121162562581-19455
24DobrudzhaDobrich1441412682206448682-234411
25SpartakSofia15377135124118456416+40394Dissolved in 2007.
26BelasitsaPetrich1236811668184377590-213360
27Chernomorets BurgasBurgas7218925373288223+65329
28VelbazhdKyustendil7201982776299269+30314
29LokomotivGorna Oryahovitsa1030410259143310462-152291
30MontanaMontana92786461153265436-171253
31ShumenShumen72126138113219368-149201
32Pirin BlagoevgradBlagoevgrad6178534184189254-65200Merged to form Pirin in 2008.
33YantraGabrovo7214655099239332-93174
34HaskovoHaskovo72125231129210400-190139
35SeptemvriSofia5148403177176273-97139
36VihrenSandanski4118381466117173-56128
37Vidima-RakovskiSevlievo5150283686126271-145120
38RodopaSmolyan4118311770106194-88110
39SFC EtarVeliko Tarnovo2722816288286-4100
40AkademikSvishtov4120362658136195-5997
41VereyaStara Zagora310624196373195-12291
42MaritsaPlovdiv4120282567129225-12689
43TundzhaYambol39728224798152-5778
44Zavod 12Sofia3742327247280-873Merged with Slavia and dissolved in 1957.
45MetalurgPernik258226306077-1772
46HebarPazardzhik38620214585141-5668
47LokomotivMezdra2601713306989-2064Dissolved in 2012.
48Vitosha BistritsaBistritsa27214154352116-6457
49PirinGotse Delchev2681684462148-8656
50VVSSofia2541321206063-347Merged into CDNA in 1956.
51StroitelSofia2501318194753-644Disbanded in 1954.
52KaliakraKavarna26010113945117-7241
53Cherveno ZnameSofia2401313144650-439Merged with CSKA in 1962.
54Rilski SportistSamokov2561163951116-6539
55OlimpikTeteven130112172650-2435
56RakovskiRuse260964541151-11033
57TorpedoPleven3669144348137-8932Merged with Spartak in 1957.
58AkademikVarna12897122643-1725Merged with Cherno More in 1969.
59DimitrovgradDimitrovgrad13086163266-3421
60LyubimetsLyubimets138632935104-6921
61HimikDimitrovgrad13076173660-2420Merged to form Dimitrovgrad in 1967.
62NesebarNesebar13055202663-3720
63Rozova DolinaKazanlak13075183053-2319
64SportistSvoge13054212359-3619
65SlaviaPlovdiv1184861621-516
66PavlikeniPavlikeni12654171245-3314
67Etar 1924Veliko Tarnovo13044222075-5513Dissolved in 2013.
68BdinVidin11824121335-228
69SvetkavitsaTargovishte1301524871-638
70ConeglianoGerman13001298131-123−2Dissolved in 2007.

;Key
Competing in First League
Competing in Second League
Competing below Second League
Not competing

Currently, Sliven 2000 and Olimpik Teteven have only youth academies.

Bulgarian derbies

The Eternal Derby

The Eternal Derby of Bulgarian football is contested between the two most successful and most popular football clubs in Bulgaria, CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia.

Plovdiv derby

The Plovdiv derby is contested between Botev and Lokomotiv.

Media coverage

From 2000 to 2008, the Bulgarian National Television broadcast all matches from A Group on its first channel – Kanal 1.
In 2008, the broadcasting rights were purchased by the private channels TV2 and Ring TV for three plus two years at a price of $33 million. BNT had the first pick for each fixture and broadcast the most interesting match for the weekend. For seasons 2009-10 and 2010-11, PRO.BG and RING.BG bought the rights to broadcast the full pack of six matches from each fixture. At the end of season 2010-11, after bTV bought PRO.BG, the channel was re-branded to bTV Action and got on broadcasting only on cable networks. The new owners didn't want to fully pay to every club in the league, because of the unmet stadium requirements for journalists and cameramen places at some stadiums. The clubs weren't happy and they threatened to ban cameras at their matches. The league matches in this period were also broadcast in Romania. During the 2008–09 season, the Romanian sports channel Sport.ro broadcast the Friday game, and in the following 2009-10 season, only the league matches of CSKA Sofia.
For the start of the new 2012-13 season, the football clubs rejected requests from four TV stations due to the low payments being offered – Bulgarian National Television, Nova Television, TV7 and TV+. Finally after the first set of fixtures, the satellite broadcaster Bulsatcom with its channel TV+ bought the rights, along with BNT. Before the start of the spring half-season the rights were bought by TV7 and News7, who had rights for the first, third and fourth pick, and BNT 1 along with the international channel BNT World broadcasting the second pick of a match.
For the 2013–14 season, 7 Media Group bought the full rights for another three seasons prior to 2016 and will broadcast six matches per fixture on their channels – TV7 and News7. In 2014 however due to financial problems, TV7 opted-out of its league contract for the championship and the rights were transferred to Nova Broadcasting Group. The 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons will be broadcast by Nova, Diema, Nova Sport and Diema Sport.
The next seasons will also be broadcast on the Nova Broadcasting Group channels Diema, Diema Sport and Diema Sport 2, part of the Diema Extra paid pack, as their contract with the league was additionally extended.

Sponsorship

Until 2011 the official sponsor of the championship was TBI Credit and the league was officially known as TBI A Football Group.
In 2011–12, A Group had a new sponsor, the Victoria FATA Insurance, and therefore the league name in that season was rebranded to Victoria A Football Championship.
In early 2013, for a short period of time the naming rights of A Group were bought from the news television network News7, eventually renaming the competition's name to NEWS7 Football Championship.
On 11 July 2019, the Bulgarian Football Union announced that the football division's name had been changed to efbet League, following a two-year sponsorship deal with a betting company of the same name.

Statistics

UEFA coefficients

The following data indicates Bulgarian coefficient rankings between European football leagues.
;Country ranking:
UEFA League Ranking as of 15 March 2019:
;Club ranking:
UEFA 5-year Club Ranking as of 15 March 2019:

All-time league appearances

All-time top scorers

Other records

Bold indicates all-time highest.
SeasonPlayer Nat.Goals
1937–38Krum Milev 12
1938–39Georgi Pachedzhiev 14
1939–40Yanko Stoyanov
Dimitar Nikolaev

14
1948–49Dimitar Milanov
Nedko Nedev

11
1950Lyubomir Hranov 13
1951Dimitar Milanov 14
1952Dimitar Isakov
Dobromir Tashkov

10
1953Dimitar Minchev 15
1954Dobromir Tashkov 25
1955Todor Diev 13
1956Pavel Vladimirov 16
1957Hristo Iliev
Dimitar Milanov

14
1958Dobromir Tashkov
Georgi Arnaudov

9
1958–59Aleksandar Vasilev 13
1959–60Dimitar Yordanov
Lyuben Kostov

12
1960–61Ivan Sotirov 20
1961–62Nikola Yordanov
Todor Diev

23
1962–63Todor Diev 26
1963–64Nikola Tsanev 26
1964–65Georgi Asparuhov 27
1965–66Traycho Spasov 21
1966–67Petar Zhekov 21
1967–68Petar Zhekov 31
1968–69Petar Zhekov 36
1969–70Petar Zhekov 31
1970–71Dimitar Yakimov 26
1971–72Petar Zhekov 27
1972–73Petar Zhekov 29
1973–74Petko Petkov 20
1974–75Ivan Pritargov 20
1975–76Petko Petkov 19
1976–77Pavel Panov 20
1977–78Stoycho Mladenov 21
1978–79Rusi Gochev 19
1979–80Spas Dzhevizov 23
1980–81Georgi Slavkov 31
1981–82Mihail Valchev 24
1982–83Antim Pehlivanov 20
1983–84Eduard Eranosyan 19
1984–85Plamen Getov 26
1985–86Atanas Pashev 30
1986–87Nasko Sirakov 36
1987–88Nasko Sirakov 28
1988–89Hristo Stoichkov 23
1989–90Hristo Stoichkov 38
1990–91Ivaylo Yordanov 21
1991–92Nasko Sirakov 26
1992–93Plamen Getov 26
1993–94Nasko Sirakov 30
1994–95Petar Mihtarski 24
1995–96Ivo Georgiev 21
1996–97Todor Pramatarov 26
1997–98Anton Spasov
Bontcho Guentchev

17
1998–99Dimcho Belyakov 21
1999–00Mihail Mihaylov 20
2000–01Georgi Ivanov 22
2001–02Vladimir Manchev 21
2002–03Georgi Chilikov 23
2003–04Martin Kamburov 25
2004–05Martin Kamburov 27
2005–06Milivoje Novaković
José Emílio Furtado

16
2006–07Tsvetan Genkov 27
2007–08Georgi Hristov 19
2008–09Martin Kamburov 17
2009–10Wilfried Niflore 19
2010–11Garra Dembélé 26
2011–12Ivan Stoyanov
Júnior Moraes

16
2012–13Basile de Carvalho 19
2013–14Wilmar Jordán
Martin Kamburov

20
2014–15Añete 14
2015–16Martin Kamburov 18
2016–17Claudiu Keșerü 22
2017–18Claudiu Keșerü 26
2018–19Stanislav Kostov 23